TELEGRAM TO V. A. ANTONOV-OVSEYENKO

Written:Written between December 21 and 28, 1917 (January 3 and 10, 1918)Published:Published on January 12, 1918 (December 30, 1917) inPravdaNo. 226.

      Printed from the telegraph form text.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 36,

      page466.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Antonov,at His Staff. Kharkov

Iwelcome whole-heartedly your energetic activity and
ruthless struggle against the Kaledinites. I entirely approve
of your refusal to make concessions to the local conciliators,
who, it seems, have led astray a section of the Bolsheviks.
I particularly approve of and welcome the arrest of the
millionaire saboteurs in the first– and second-class railway
carriage.[1]I advise you to send them for six months to do forced
labour in the mines. Once again I greet you for your
resolution, and condemn the waverers.

[1]Inresponse to the introduction of the 8-hour working day,
Kharkov capitalists stopped paying wages to workers in time. The
workers appealed to V. A. Antonov-Ovseyenko for help. When
the local revolutionary committee, to which the latter applied,
failed to take steps, he summoned 15 of the major capitalists to
his railway car and ordered them to find 1 million rubles in cash
to pay the workers. Following their refusal, they were detained
and placed under arrest in a second-class carriage. They were
told that unless they got the money in time, they would be sent
to work in the mines. This had an effect, the money was collected
and paid in, and the capitalists were released.